Today is one month since I have had my kids. I call them my kids because my friend told me I spend more time tending to them then most people do with their children. I tapped the paper towel tube that they were sleeping in to wake them up. They soon found themselves in a large steel bowl full of chinchilla dust bath. In hamster language, they must have been screaming �AHH! Not this again!�

Since it�s been one month, I did my normal routine of changing the bedding with fresh aspen wood shavings, washed out the special wooden �water fountain� I bought, and their dust bath followed by groomed with a small toothbrush. I washed out and soaked their massive glass case that use to be a cell phone display case at Radioshack. Scrubbed and windexed, I piece their home back together, retighten the screws, put back their dishes and multiple wheels that was freshly washed. I put them back and both of them at the same time rushed the fresh food dish chirping out �CORN!� They love fresh corn.

I like how they both have different personalities.

Paris is a little grey hamster with a black strip down his back. He is the picture perfect dwarf hamster in the books. He�s a little chubby compared to Peabody and doesn�t run as much. Sometimes he�ll have so much food in his cheeks that his head is bigger than the rest of his body. Arguably I spend way more time playing with Paris. He�s a lot more playful and affectionate. Since he�s so use to me handling him, he�ll eat directly from my hand, and often sleep in my lap. I have to keep my eye on him all the time when he�s out of the case. He�s incredibly fearless and will jump off of any ledge like a lemming. I would be watching TV and he�s on the couch with me, seconds later I�ll hear him chewing leaves on plants behind me.

Peabody was the first rodent I acquired. Completely white, she looks like a golf ball when she curls up. She gets more tense and edgy, at first she bites all the time. I thought she was just being a bitch till I figured out she was just sick. After a week of treating her with medication, now she�s a lot tamer then before. She is a little more afraid to explore and run around unlike Paris. Now she�ll run up my shirt to stand on my shoulder. Her name comes from �Mr Peabody� the famous time traveling dog, one of my favorite cartoons. The reason I named her this, aside from the obvious fact that she�s all white was that when I first got her, she kept scratching her head indicating that she is smart and thinking (or itchy, but I�m idealistic like that). Personally I think she is trying to turn the hamster wheel into a time machine.

They love kettle korn and fighting over the plastic wheel (they sleep in the wooden one for some reason). Paris would hold Peabody when they sleep like a little furry couple. Paris hates dust baths but loves it when I groom him, Peabody doesn�t mind the dust bath but always try to bite the toothbrush. I noticed just now that they pull their ear back when they run, like it's more aerodynamic. It�s true I spoil them like crazy as I did with all my other pets. I figure it this way, all I give them is a place to live. They give me something much more important, something to care about.